The Jersey Arts Podcast

The Alan Parsons Live Project plays Bergen Performing Arts Center on Friday, February 22. Rock icon Alan Parsons took a moment during his non-stop touring schedule to chat with us about getting his start working with The Beatles and Pink Floyd at Abbey Road Studios, the analog approach he took in producing his new album "The Secret," and finally winning a Grammy Award a few weeks ago after being nominated 13 times over four decades. The first one was for his engineering work on Pink Floyd’s classic album "Dark Side of the Moon."

Composer John Morton has created interactive installations using sound in Central Park, Governors Island and now the Morris Museum, where two of his pieces can be “played” through February 24. “Fever Songs” uses audio gathered from different religious traditions, and "The Voyage Out” is a collaboration with figurative artist Jacqueline Shatz. Producer Susan Wallner talks to both of the artists about the latter work -- a ship with three keys that initiate both movement and sound -- which was inspired by Charles Darwin’s journey of exploration aboard the HMS Beagle. Morton and Shatz also discuss the tradition of music boxes and automata, both of which can be seen in the Morris Museum’s world-renowned Guinness Collection of Mechanical Musical Instruments and Automata.

At the age of 75, singer-songwriter Garland Jeffreys continues to rock. The Brooklyn native got his start in New York City’s club scene in the mid-60s, and had a breakout hit in the 70s with the single “Wild in the Streets." He met his best friend Lou Reed while studying art history at Syracuse University, and he recorded with The Velvet Underground’s co-founder John Cale before striking out on his own. In 1977, the year his album "Ghost Writer" was released, Rolling Stone pronounced him Best New Artist. In the decades since, Jeffreys has recorded 12 more albums, including last year’s "14 Steps To Harlem." We spoke recently over the phone to talk about protest music, his upcoming show at SOPAC and the song that started it all.

Drummer, leader, and composer Terri Lyne Carrington made history as the first woman to win a Grammy for Best Instrumental Jazz for her album Money Jungle: Provocative in Blue. Now, she brings her interpretation of Duke Ellington’s Money Jungle to the TD James Moody Jazz Festival at NJPAC on November 11, 2018, as part of a program called “Jazz Vinyl Revisited.” Producer Susan Wallner talks to Carrington about her connections to the jazz greats Clark Terry and Max Roach; her newest project, the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice; and why she thinks drummers make natural leaders.

Tonight, Tuesday, October 30, at Douglass Library at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, a mother and her daughter – one an artist, the other a scientist – will have a public conversation about where, why and how their fields intersect. Judith Brodsky is the artist, and the conversation is part of a reception for her new solo exhibit called "The 20 Most Important Scientific Questions of the 21st Century." The scientist is Frances Brodsky, Director of Biosciences at University College London. The conversation will be moderated by curator Ferris Olin, who has worked with Judith Brodsky on various projects for decades, including founding the Center for Women in the Arts and Humanities at Rutgers University, which is presenting this exhibit. In this podcast, we speak with them about art, activism, and how women invented Postmodernism. "The 20 Most Important Scientific Questions of the 21st Century"c runs through December 14th at Douglass Library. For more info, visit the Center for Women in the Arts and Humanities’ website: cwah.rutgers.edu

The Dodge Poetry Festival is the largest poetry event in North America. Paterson-based poet Maria Mazziotti Gillan will be reading on Thursday and Friday of the four-day festival taking place October 18-21 in Newark. Maria is the force behind the Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College, and the author of more than 20 books by and about poetry. Her poems are about her life, including her strong memories of childhood in Paterson's Italian immigrant community. She likes to talk about the “cave,” that place of memories and feelings inside us all that the best poetry takes us back to. Producer Susan Wallner spoke to Maria Mazziotti Gillan at her home in Hawthorne, a suburb of Paterson.

Steve Martin and Edie Brickell’s Broadway musical "Bright Star" has come to Surflight Theatre in Beach Haven. The comedian and the songwriter created the show after collaborating on a Grammy-winning bluegrass album called "Love Has Come For You." "Bright Star" is set in the American South in the 1920s and '40s, and it’s on a similar musical wavelength. We recently spoke with Surflight’s Artistic Director Steve Steiner, actor Adrianne Hick and director Elizabeth Lucas about bringing "Bright Star" to Long Beach Island.

Wendy Wasserstein’s best known play, 'The Heidi Chronicles,' won both the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play in 1989. Many of the themes of this feminist classic were already evident in 'Uncommon Women and Others,' a play written by Wasserstein a decade earlier. 'Uncommon Women' is on stage at the Princeton Summer Theater through July 22nd. For this podcast, producer Susan Wallner spoke to the Dean of Princeton College and author of a book about Wendy Wasserstein, Jill Dolan. Dolan points out that the hopes and fears of young women about to make critical life choices after college continue to resonate today.

Looking for a way to celebrate the beginning of the summer season? Starting tomorrow, all 48 blocks of Atlantic City will be buzzing with hands-on art projects, live performances, unique dining experiences and a lot more. We recently spoke with Joyce Hagen, Executive Director of the Atlantic City Arts Foundation, to learn more about A.C.’s arts scene, and to find out what the 48 Blocks Atlantic City arts celebration is all about. For a handy guide to all of the locations and events, check out 48blocksAC.com.

“Caged” is a play based on the experiences of incarcerated men in New Jersey. It’s written by the New Jersey Prison Cooperative, a group of men who met in a drama class in prison taught by Chris Hedges, an author and Princeton University professor. Hedges had heard a story about a man being jailed that had affected him, and he offered it to the class as a starting point. From that beginning, the men created “Caged,” a transformative play based on their own, similar experiences of incarceration. Producer Susan Wallner spoke to Boris Franklin, the only one of the playwrights out of prison yet. Franklin is now a full-time student majoring in psychology, and an actor in the premiere production of “Caged” at Passage Theatre, May 3-20, 2018.

EThe new musical "The Sting," now entering its last weekend at Paper Mill Playhouse, was pretty much totally sold out before it even opened. A musical adaptation of the classic, Oscar-winning film of the same name starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford, this new version stars Harry Connick, Jr., J. Harrison Ghee and Kate Shindle – to name a few. Theater-goers know Ghee from his inimitable performance as the drag queen hero Lola of the Tony Award-winning "Kinky Boots," and they know Shindle from Broadway productions of "Jekyll & Hyde," "Cabaret," "Wonderland" and the national tour of the Tony Award-winning musical "Fun Home." We spoke with both of them earlier this week as they were preparing for their final performances of this smash-hit run at Paper Mill.

Even if you don't know anything about opera, you've heard “Ride of the Valkyries" – it’s been bouncing around pop culture for generations, appearing in everything from Bugs Bunny cartoons to "Apocalypse Now." This Sunday, March 18, at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Trilogy: An Opera Company will present Richard Wagner’s "The Valkyrie" – the second of four works that form Richard Wagner's musical drama "Ring Cycle"  – which features the famous “Ride of the Valkyries” segment at the beginning of Act Three. We recently spoke with Trilogy’s Artistic Director Kevin Maynor about this opera and the meaning behind it. Maynor will also be performing the role of Hunding on Sunday – something he’s done many times in opera houses around the world throughout his remarkable career as an opera singer.

The next show at the Axelrod Performing Arts Center, opening March 3, is the popular musical “Ragtime.” Set in the early 20th century, it features African Americans, Jewish immigrants, upper-class suburbanites, as well as historical luminaries such as Harry Houdini, Henry Ford and Emma Goldman. Luis Salgado is the director of this new production, returning to Axelrod PAC after his popular 2017 production of “In the Heights.” Salgado was an original cast member and assistant choreographer for Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “In the Heights” on Broadway. Producer Susan Wallner spoke to Salgado about his journey from performer to director, his mission as an artist and about being back at the Axelrod PAC. “Ragtime” runs March 3-25 at Axelrod Performing Arts Center in Deal Park, NJ.

Caleb Hudson is the newest member of the Canadian Brass, the popular quintet that revolutionized the place of brass in classical music. A former principal trumpet of Collingswood’s Symphony in C, Hudson returns as a featured artist on their “Italian Festival” concert on January 27 at the Rutgers Camden Center for the Arts. He spoke to producer Susan Wallner about how he first came to play the trumpet, what it's like to be part of the Canadian Brass and the two solos he’ll be performing with the Symphony in C.

This year commemorates the 100th anniversary of the United States’ entry into World War I. Though often referred to as The Forgotten War, most of us know that it was one of the largest and most brutal wars in history. But there is one short chapter that is still unknown to many — during the Christmas of 1914, peace broke out. Allied and German soldiers on the front lines reached out to each other from their trenches, initially through Christmas caroling, and met in the No Man’s Land between them to exchange holiday greetings, trade food, play soccer, swap prisoners and hold burial ceremonies for their dead. Then, the truce ended, and the war continued. One of the most unlikely moments in modern history, and left out of most textbooks, the Christmas Truce of 1914 really did happen. This Sunday at Kean University, the story will come to life on stage in “All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914.” Christopher Benincasa recently spoke with writer and director Peter Rothstein and Kean Stage Manager Steve Cochran about “All Is Calm,” and the amazing history behind it.

The elegant old Hahne and Co. Department Store in Newark, shuttered for 30 years, is now home to a new experiment in the arts. Along with the first Whole Foods in the city, apartments and a new restaurant, it’s home to Express Newark - an “arts incubator” conceived by Rutgers University-Newark in collaboration with community arts leaders. Popular programs include the weekly open studio at the Newark Print Shop, the free facilities at Shine Portrait Studio and the changing exhibitions at the Paul Robeson Gallery. Producer Susan Wallner spoke to the co-directors of Express Newark, Anne Schaper Englot and Victor Davson. They call it a “third space” - where public scholarship and community engagement are opening up an exciting new chapter in Newark’s cultural history.

We recently spoke with Tony Award-winning director John Rando about the new musical comedy “The Honeymooners” – based on the classic television series – which recently had its world premiere at Paper Mill Playhouse. The common ancestor of many, if not most, television sit-coms, “The Honeymooners” told the stories of married, working-class Brooklynites Ralph and Alice Kramden, their best friends Ed and Trixie Norton and people from the neighborhood around their apartment building. The influence of “The Honeymooners” can’t really be overstated, and can be seen in shows like “The Flintstones,” “All In The Family,” “The Simpsons,” “Roseanne" and “The Big Bang Theory” – and, just last year, CBS announced that it was rebooting “The Honeymooners” series for a new generation. Seven years in the making, “The Honeymooners” musical is kicking off Paper Mill's new season and generating a lot of buzz.

ArtYard began in Frenchtown, NJ with a “hatch.” From a huge egg, people emerged in chicken costumes to the music of a jazz saxophonist, leading a parade from ArtYard’s future headquarters in an old egg hatchery to their current space at 62A Trenton Road. It’s the kind of unexpected, collaborative event that ArtYard has become known for, and that you can expect more of in the future. Producer Susan Wallner visited ArtYard Founder and Executive Director Jill Kearney at the new, expansive center for the contemporary arts, which opened in 2016. A major exhibition, "(in)animate" opens September 30 and will be up through December 31, 2017. Curated by ArtYard’s Artistic Director, Elsa Mora, "(in)animate" features both local and national artists.

This Friday, the fifth annual New Jersey Uke Fest – that’s Uke as in Ukulele – begins at the Ukrainian American Cultural Center in Whippany. This weekend of concerts and workshops ends on Sunday with a big outdoor “Uke Jam” on the Morristown Green in Morristown, New Jersey. Chris Benincasa recently spoke with one of the festival’s organizers, Fil Wisneski, about what happens when hundreds of ukulele players congregate, and the distinct musical styles of featured artists Kimo Hussey, Rachel Manke and Danielle Ate The Sandwich.

When the days are longest, the world can magically transform. In a new production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the fairies Moth, Cobweb, Mustardseed, Peaseblossom, Puck, Oberon and Titania transform items most of us casually throw away. Old keys, straws, plastic membership and transit cards, wine corks and CDs, all combine in costumes and sets that evoke a magical world. Director and designer Bonnie Monte - a self-proclaimed collector and recycler - describes her vision of Midsummer to producer Susan Wallner. The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey performs A Midsummer Night’s Dream at their outdoor stage at the College of St. Elizabeth in Morris Township through July 30th.